the Week of Proper 28 / Ordinary 33
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Bible Dictionaries
Malachi
Hawker's Poor Man's Concordance And Dictionary
or The last of the prophets, in closing the sacred canon of the Old Testament Scripture. So little is known of this man, either of his person or connections, and tribe, or family, that some have doubted whether his name means any more than what the word itself expresses, my angel or messenger, from Malach, angel, or messenger. The point cannot be determined, for it is well known, that the Lord Jesus Christ himself, as well as his messenger, is spoken of by this same word in the third chapter and first verse. This is striking, and highly proper to be regarded. The name of the person writing is called Malachi; in Malachi 1:1, John the Baptist is called my messenger by the same word Malachi, in the first part of Malachi 3:1-18. And Christ is called the messenger of the covenant, by the same word Malachi, in the middle part of the same verse of the same chapter. So that Malach, a messenger or angel, is the common term made use of in reference to all under this character. And such views of the name tend, in my humble opinion, to confirm what I have before remarked in the former part of this Concordance, under the word Archangel, (which see) that Christ, the glorious angel of the covenant, is the only archangel of Scripture. For to admit the supposition of any other as archangel, while Christ is expressly called the Angel of the covenant, must imply some inferiority in Christ: a thing impossible. And as we well know that Jesus Christ is the all in all of the covenant, both the angel or messenger of it; the fulfiller of it; the sum and substance of it; the administrator of it; in all present and everlasting concerns; we do no violence to the expression, when we express Christ's personal offices in the great work of redemption, by all and every term of character that can tend to bring home the Lord Jesus to our affections, in the most endeared and endearing manner.
See Archangel.
It may not be improper to observe respecting Malachi, the prophet, that his services were exercised about three hundred and fifty years before the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. And with this man's ministry, the Holy Ghost closeth the sacred volume of the Old Testament Scripture.
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Hawker, Robert D.D. Entry for 'Malachi'. Hawker's Poor Man's Concordance and Dictionary. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/pmd/m/malachi.html. London. 1828.
